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My friend Susie rang one day to tell me about Terance Coventry's sculpture - she said "it's very YOU!" Although much of my work is textile-based, I have been known to work with 3D figures and birds (a final piece at uni depicted a man and bird supended in space) and I have painted and drawn many women with birds sitting on their shoulder or head. The bird (for me) symbolises inspiration and another language of communication, as well as the more obvious aspects of freedom and flight. On seeing Terence Coventry's work for the first time I was moved to tears (so to speak) - I love the simplicity and poignancy of this moment between the man and the bird. Impossible to encapsulate in few words (without sounding silly) so no need to try.

The image is on my wall for inspiration, next to it hangs my own papier-mache man and bird and outside the window the doves spend the day eating olives which have fallen on the ground.

The title of this post is in part a reference to Elizabeth Gilbert's talk on TED (which I have mentioned before)and relates to the fact that sometimes creativity just isn't happening. According to EG (whom of course you know is the author of Eat Pray Love, a book I read despite not wanting to for a long while then did and glad I did), whether or not one is feeling inspired, it's important to turn up for work and just get down to it.

And that is what I am doing these days ... turning up, keeping busy, doing simple tasks, writing lists, starting new projects, getting distracted, wandering out for a bit more distraction, moving the studio around ... und so weiter. I am becoming a tad worried because there are markets looming and it's all very slow and not so productive.

I think it's very curious how there is a natural tendency to be distracted from things when things are difficult or challenging, though it's not just about running away. Distraction, according to my…